Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: President Trump has second thoughts about spending

Interview

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INGRAHAM: He said, he agrees with us. Perhaps the president was actually watching the angle, I hope so. Earlier today, he reconsidered his support of the omnibus bill and called Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader McConnell to the White House for a meeting.

Now in a statement, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced, 'The president and the leaders discussed their support for the bill, which includes more funds to rebuild the military, such as the largest pay raise for our troops in a decade, more than 100 miles of new construction for the border wall, and other key domestic priorities, like combating the opioid crisis and rebuilding our nation's infrastructure.'

Now, this is curious. Ryan and McConnell obviously pushed the president to support this bill -- there are some good things in the bill -- but the big push was Mr. President, you cannot afford a government shutdown on Friday.

That's how they always do it. They make you agree to blow your promises and principles but put a gun to your head. This will be terrible, shut the government down. It pains me to say this, but the president is buying a pig in a poke here. He won on calling out the establishment, on naming names, yes, even when it made things uncomfortable.

So, I have a question. Where did that Donald Trump go? And where does all our money go in this bill that's even too big for us to show on camera regularly? It's money we don't have that we will have to borrow from China, Japan, or Germany, et cetera, or print, but where does it go in this discretionary part of this spending (inaudible).

Well, the Pentagon budget balloons to an obscene $700 billion. That's more than $80 billion over current limits. Yes, I said $80 billion. Sanctuary cities? Fully funded. Jerry Brown is happy. Planned Parenthood, a half a billion dollars, and something called, get this, community development block grants to cities.

That's, by the way, what President Trump wanted stripped from this budget, nearly doubled to $5.2 billion, and then there's the Obama era transportation grant program known as tiger. I don't know what that is. I love tigers, but I can't love this. This would have its budget tripled to $1.5 billion. I could go on and on and on.

We've only got an hour tonight. If I were advising the president, I would tell him, take this as an opportunity tonight to challenge the GOP leadership. There would be no signature on the omnibus bill without a guarantee of full funding for the wall, and a total defunding of the sanctuary cities across this country.

And another thing, he should never sign this omnibus spending bill without first securing a commitment from Democrats to allow confirmation votes for all of his major nominees, which are clearly stuck in committee.

And I'm talking about ambassadors, like Rick Rinel for Ambassador to Germany, and others, judges, district court judges, and assistant secretaries, deputy secretaries, other key personnel. This is the bare minimum that the president should agree to.

This move would also have the added benefit, not the primary, but added benefit of taking the focus off Stormy Daniels and company and all the other people putting on tv on the other cables and return the focus to substance. That's where Trump does best.

The American people did not elect Trump, or the GOP Congress, to fill the swamp. We elected them to drain it. And the fact that the military contractors, the lobbyists are clinking champagne glasses at Washington steakhouses tonight should concern everyone.

The conservative approach is to shrink government, not expand it. Spending more and perpetuating Obama era programs is a recipe for fiscal and electoral disaster. Even with some of the good stuff that is in this bill.
And that's THE ANGLE.

Joining me now for reaction is Republican Congressman Mark Meadows who is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is a Democrat from Illinois. It's great to see both you.

Let's start with you, Congressman Meadows. I just delivered some tough medicine, but that's what I'm going to do. When I look at this legislation, I call it legislation, but it's more than -- there it is. I think this is not draining the swamp. Who's actually reading this, Congressman? Who has read this entire bill tonight?

REP. MARK MEADOWS, R--N.C.: I can tell you, no one's read the entire bill, some 2,230 pages that we got over a little over an hour ago. I'm about 200 pages into it. Obviously, we have staff going through it. But really, this is not about draining the swamp.

When you look at this particular bill, were you too harsh? The answer is, no, you could be a lot harsher. We continue to fund sanctuary cities. We continue to fund Planned Parenthood. We don't build the wall, but we put money in for a tunnel.

The last time I checked, when the president was campaigning, he wasn't campaigning for a tunnel between New Jersey and New York. He was campaigning about a border wall on our southern border. So, you know, there is a lot to be disappointed. We're still going through this, but I'm not very optimistic that there will be conservative wins in this.

INGRAHAM: Congressman Krishnamoorthi, if I'm a Democrat and I see the House is in Republican hands, the Senate's in Republican hands, and we have a Republican, a conservative Republican like Donald Trump in the White House, and I see Planned Parenthood funded, sanctuary cities funded, Chuck Schumer gets his mega tunnel, New Jersey-New York, and a bunch of other stuff gets funded, there's not a lot to be upset about really in this budget, all things considered. Your reaction?

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI, D--I.L.: Well, look, I think that the president is supportive on a lot of shared priorities. It fully funds military and domestic programs, additional funding for the opioid crisis which is ravaging our district. And then it helps to increase funding for NIH as well as making sure our veterans are taken care of. I haven't read the whole bill, as Mark mentioned, but I'm optimistic. I'm hopeful that we can come to a compromise by tomorrow.

INGRAHAM: Now, you haven't read the bill and I'm not criticizing you because there's no one -- the Evelyn Wood A-plus citation student couldn't read this bill, OK? I'm not criticizing you because you just got this.
But given what we know about our current debt levels, it's exploding, exploded under President Obama, exploded under Bush, now it's set to increase, could be another $1 trillion.

Mark, tell me if I'm wrong about this. Don't we have a moral obligation to be honest with the American public about where we're getting the money to fund all these important priorities, China, Japan, Germany, all the people we're borrowing it from? We don't have this money, do we?

MEADOWS: Well, we don't. Laura, here's one of the interesting things.
Yes, we'll end up with a $1 trillion deficit that will probably come out in October of this year, $1 trillion-plus. Here's the other interesting thing, you don't have to read the fine print to understand that we're going to grow the size of government by 12 percent to 13 percent.

So, when you're looking at that kind of growth, I don't know that his district or my district, anybody back home saw a 13 percent increase in their wages, but somehow, we're going to give government a raise like that?

Here's the other problem, Laura, is this. We have a Republican-controlled House. We have a Republican-controlled Senate, and we have a Republican in the White House. And we have a Democrat here tonight saying how great this bill is. There is a problem there when you have that.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I think the right honorable gentleman from North Carolina
--

INGRAHAM: He's smiling. Congressman, first of all, I already like you, because you came on the show. A lot of your colleagues won't. But I already like you, because you're being honest. This is a good bill for Democrats. It's good the military gets tons of funding and that's all great. Military needs a raise, I understand that. But you're smiling, not just because you're hanging out with us on whatever the heck this is, a Wednesday night, you're having fun. This is a good deal for Democrats, I'm sorry.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: How can you not smile when you're standing next to Congressman Meadows. Look, the bottom line is -- I haven't read the full bill, I haven't made my final decision on this, but if it's fully funding the military programs, right now or military readiness is at all-time lows. Secretary Mattis said we cannot good on another continuing resolution stop- gap budget. It would hurt the military.

INGRAHAM: Maybe we should think about that the next time we commit our troops to some godforsaken country. Maybe we should think about what it will cost when we commit our troops to another multiple deployment intervention. It's nice to say we're in the hole $5 trillion, but --

MEADOWS: Laura, here's the other thing. If we wanted to fund the military, why didn't we put forth the funds to fund the military and deal with the nondefense discretionary separate, but somehow, we put them together because we grow the size of government. That's the problem.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, I think we've got to take care of the veterans.

(CROSSTALK)

INGRAHAM: OK, the veterans, we always -- it's veterans, veterans, veterans. Every time I raise an issue about the bill, people say we got to take care of the veterans. I understand that, but we also have other issues that are weighing down on the American public. I do believe tonight the American people have to understand this, we're going to have, you know, 438 Congressmen, 100 senators will vote on this legislation in the next, what, 72 hours, guys, 72 hours, something like that?

MEADOWS: Probably quicker than that, yes.

INGRAHAM: OK, 48 hours. I would say 98 percent of them, and I'm being charitable, will not have read this. We're going to have to pass it to see what's in it. We're back in that stage and I know there's good stuff. People will get some help. But we've got to go back to the regular order, where each department --

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes, Ma'am, I agree with you.

INGRAHAM: Each department gets a budget and each budget is voted on. We can have some transparency. Maybe it's this long. Maybe it's this long.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I really think Speaker Ryan -- I'm really disappointed that Speaker Ryan didn't present it with a budget -- this particular bill sooner than tonight. We need regular order around here so -- I'm rank and file, I'm not leadership.

INGRAHAM: I got it.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I don't run the trains around here. All I can say is, I need more time to read through this thing. I would like to work with people like Congressman Meadows and make it a better bill. But if the choice is not funding the troops, taking care of the veterans --

INGRAHAM: But they're putting you in that provision --

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I can't do that.

INGRAHAM: But Congressman, they're putting you in that position. It's the way Washington works. You've got to do what you've got to do, you've got to pass it -- it's ridiculous. We cannot do this to the American taxpayers and our future generations.

But Congressman Meadows, Congressman Krishnamoorthi, it's great to have you both on. Fantastic segment. It's complicated. So, we really appreciate it.

Coming up, what a fired FBI official may have done to try to bring down a member of Trump's cabinet? Yes. Kim Strassel, 'Wall Street Journal,' here to explain next.

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